Critic Reviews

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90

GameFan Magazine

Whoa, mutant food monsters! Finally, another great Lynx game. Kung Food has big characters and controls great. Some of the characters are a crack up! The graphics are detailed and well shaded, and there's even a little scaling. A definite MUST-OLA for Lynx fans!

80

Defunct Games

I had a great time with Kung Food, and it's a shame that this game never received any sequels. Sure the concept is silly, but I rather like the idea of walking around and beating up food. I'd rather do that from time to time than play yet another fighting game with realistic looking characters and boring old cityscapes. Kung Food is silly fun, and that's exactly the reason why I love it.

In any case, Kung Food is a textbook example of Stupid Premise combined with Lame Execution. If you need a fighting game for the lynx, check out Ninja Gaiden, which is at least remotely playable. Just leave this one to rot in the fridge.

Kung Food could have rode the gimmick all the way through to the end if the difficulty was toned down just a notch from impossible. It's not the best game for kids, and the chances of them even touching a vegetable after playing this is zilch. They'll learn to never try to stand up to the cauliflower. It'll win every time.

My friend Felix recently told me, on the subject of Kung Food, that the game should review itself. It does. It is adequate brawling on the Atari Lynx, which is not a handheld known for existing. Collision detection is problematic, especially when trying to fight hovering flies and darting rats. Copious health renders it tolerable, but not enjoyable. Bosses include an ice machine gone awry and a massive spud monster, but my enthusiasm is not palpable. It is a beat' em up about fighting personified vegetables in your refrigerator, but even I cannot mustard a single exclamation point. Just that lousy pun.

Now, onto the bad things. The game's sound is horrible. The gameplay itself is about what you would expect from an early generic beat-em-up, and not something that was released in 1992. The graphics are poorly animated, and the "action" is barely there. Most of the time, you can't tell if you're winning or not. The control lacks so badly. On top of that, while food is funny, beating up food can be funny and some of the enemies were creative... this game just ends up looking stupid most of the time. Within five minutes of starting to play it, I had no desire to go further. And since then, I have never had the desire to pick it back up. Perhaps if the creativity was put into a game with better control and mechanics, this would be a favorite of mine. Instead, it ends up being one of my least favorite Lynx releases.

Your control is limited to basic kicks and punches, and you can't interact with the scenery. Most enemies require multiple hits to kill, but it's hard to line up with them and even harder to tell if you're doing any damage. Additional obstacles like spikes appear without warning and inflict cheap hits. The characters are quite large but not particularly well animated. There's a fine line between zany and stupid, and Kung Food crosses that line often. On the bright side, compared to Kung Food, most other Lynx titles are terrific!